Chain driven bicycle drive trains have existed for many years. Generally the chain receives power input from a pedal crank that has a motive force exerted upon it by a rider's legs. The force is transferred by the chain to the driven wheel by a geared cog, for example, which is in turn mechanically linked to a hub. The hub is attached to the drive wheel by means of spokes or solid inserts such as in the so-called disk wheels. In this way linear force from a rider's legs is transformed into rotational force applied to the wheel and then to the road surface.
From time to time the wheel must be detached from the bicycle frame, for example, to change a flat tire or to replace a worn part. There exist many contemporary methods for attaching a wheel to a bicycle frame. One method uses a solid axle threaded on both ends. Once the axle ends have been located correctly in the frame, nuts are tightened to fix the wheel in place. A second method uses a hollow axle through which a rod, or so-called skewer, is run. One end of the skewer has a lever and the other end an adjustable nut. Once the wheel is in the correct position the lever is operated which results in a clamping force being applied to fix the wheel in place.
While these methods are functional, they suffer from a common flaw. The chain must be disengaged from the drive cogs in order to remove the wheel. Depending on the complexity of the cogset, this can be a messy and time consuming operation. For example, consider a ten speed cogset typical of contemporary road or mountain bicycles. In order to remove the wheel the chain must be driven to the smallest cog in order to provide the requisite slack chain tension to allow the wheel to drop away from the frame. Once done, the derailleur mechanism, which is used to move the chain up and down the cogset, must be held out of the way so that the cogset, which is attached permanently to the wheel, will have the needed clearance to drop away from the frame lugs.
Once the wheel is clear, maintenance can take place. But the same problems exist upon remounting of the wheel. First the derailleur must be moved out of the way, then the chain must be manually placed on the correct cog, then the wheel carefully moved into the frame lugs and the securing mechanism engaged. One major problem with prior art methods is that it is difficult to ensure the proper alignment of the wheel in the frame lugs. This happens in part because the chain exerts an off-axis load on the cogset which tends to make the wheel align off center. The result is that the wheel may then interfere with the brake mechanism causing an unwanted drag.
A second major problem with prior art methods is that the derailleur is very delicate. If the user inadvertently applies a force in the wrong place the alignment of the derailleur box could be affected. This is so because the derailleur is essentially a parallelogram that moves the chain left or right depending on the rider's selection of gear. Any misalignment will cause difficulty in shifting. Finally, since the chain is now on the smallest cog, the shifter mechanism must once again be operated to place the chain on a cog that will allow a rider to easily get moving.
My U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,549,315 and 5,823,555 generally disclose cycle wheel mounting apparatus for facilitating installation and removal of cycle wheels employing notches for releasably interconnecting cycle frames and wheel hubs. The following patent documents are also known: U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,958, issued March, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,369, issued October, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,038, issued August, 1983, U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,139, issued January, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,097, issued April, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,941, issued February, 1989, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,672, issued June, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,913, issued October, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,125, issued June, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,383, issued February, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,157, issued July, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,299, issued February, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,304, issued Sep. 18, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,643, issued July, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,622, issued August, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,281, issued June, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,306, issued December, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,363, issued September, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,643, issued May, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,322, issued October, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,958, issued March, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,423, issued November, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,675, issued July, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,555, issued October, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,304, issued September, 2001, U.S. Patent Pub. Appl. No. 2007/0052286, published March, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,344, issued August, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,315, issued August, 1996, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2007/0287574, published December, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,294, issued July, 1994, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2008/0157586, July, 2008, U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,593, issued May, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,321, issued March, 2006, U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,052, issued February, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,510, issued July, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,252, issued May, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,862, issued July, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,242, issued June, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,973, issued February, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,319, issued September, 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,762, issued November, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,973, issued June, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,053, issued March, 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,369, issued October, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,314, issued December, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,659, issued February, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. RE39,528, issued March, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,306, issued July, 1995, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2006/0158022, published July, 2006, U.S. Pat. No. 7,367,632, issued May, 2008, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2002/0067069, published June, 2002, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2002/0067068, published June, 2002, French Patent No. 2518-461, dated June, 1983, French Patent No. 2776-612, dated March, 1998, French Patent No. 2501-124, dated March, 19871, French Patent No. 2188-551, dated June, 1972, Italian Patent No. 596057, dated October, 1958, Dutch Patent No. 9218 358.1, dated October, 1994, Dutch Patent No. 1 155 355, dated April 1964, French Patent No. 668,943, dated March, 1952, Great Britain Patent No. 572,237, dated September, 1945, Japanese Patent No. 55 51601, European Patent Application No. 0 094 649, dated November, 1983, European Patent No. 0 277 576, dated January, 1988, European Patent Application No. 1 211 102, dated November, 2001, European Patent No. 0 835 188, dated July, 1996, and PCT Publication No. WO 89/04258, dated May, 1989.
The invention disclosed in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/215,809, filed Jun. 20, 2008, of which this application is a continuation-in-part, relates to apparatus for a driven bicycle hub that eliminates the need for a user to become involved in any way with the cogset or chain. The hub assembly of the apparatus is comprised of three main pieces: a non-driven side slotted receiver, a driven side receiver and a center section that positively mates with both receivers. A solid axle attaches the three main pieces together in a two stage threading action. The mating action is such that misalignment of the wheel is impossible.
The non-driven side slotted receiver is permanently attached to the non-driven side frame lug. The driven side receiver, which has the cogset and thus the chain mounted to it, is attached to the driven side frame lug. The center section is hollow to allow a solid axle to pass through it. The solid axle has a handle on one end and is threaded on the opposite end. At a point close to the threaded end the axle has a unique hex segment that is used to engage a captive sleeve that also runs through the center section.
In operation, the user turns the knob to loosen the axle from the driven side frame lug mounting hardware, slides the axle outwardly until the hex segment engages the captive sleeve, again uses the knob to loosen the center section from the driven side receiver, and then slides the axle out to its outward-most position. At this point the center section with the wheel may be removed from the bicycle. Since the cogset and chain are still mounted in place on the driven side receiver, the user need not become involved with either in order to remove the wheel.
A major advantage of the invention of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/215,809 is that the alignment of the cogset, chain and derailleur does not change. Thus it is impossible to cause damage to the delicate derailleur when dismounting or remounting the driven wheel. Further, since the center section mates with the non-driven side slotted receiver and driven side receiver in a singular way, there is no possibility of misaligning the wheel upon remounting to the bicycle frame.